Murder in Paris: A Third-Culture Kid Mystery

The heat of a Paris summer provides the backdrop for Nelson’s engaging fourth Third-Culture Kid mystery (after 2012’s Murder in Geneva). Tech writer Annie Young’s determination to take a freelance job documenting an archeological dig run by her Italian lothario ex-lover, Luca Martinelli, causes enough friction to end her engagement to Argelès-sur-mer police chief Roger Perret. Luca is not only leading the excavation in Paris’s Latin Quarter but is also sharing her borrowed apartment. When attractive but not-well-liked team member Amelie LaFollette is shot to death at the dig, police detective Marie-Claude Du Pont investigates. Suspicion is cast on the amorous Luca as well as other coworkers with access to the site and its potentially valuable contents. Flashbacks to a 13th-century monk-in-the-making, Jacques Fournier, enrich the contemporary storyline, which builds to a satisfyingly untidy resolution. (June)